Marie and the Four Realms
by AmazingGraceless
Summary: Marie Stahlbaum is a mystery. Appearing on the snowiest night of the year an orphan, Christian Elias Drosselmeyer tries to get out of her the truth of her past. Nutcracker and the Four Realms
1. Prologue

The sun winked at the Drosselmeyer Estate as it crept toward the horizon, promising Christmas Day. Benjamin Stahlbaum stepped away from the younger of his two daughters, Clara, as she looked out into the crowd. He followed his daughter's eyeline into the crowd, to see them rest upon a young, dark-skinned soldier who was steadily making his way to the gazebo where the father and daughter were dancing.

Wait.

Benjamin knew that uniform. As the young soldier continued his march, Benjamin even came to recognize him.

Hoffman.

How had he gotten here? Drosselmeyer didn't open the clock portal, since the people of their world wouldn't take kindly to the Four Realms—

"Phillip!" Clara raced down the steps to meet Captain Hoffman. He lifted her hand to his lips.

"Hello, Clara," he said. "Not very much time has passed in your world, has it?"

"Only a few hours." She glanced over to Benjamin, and she hastily turned back to Hoffman. "Phillip, this is my father, Dr. Benjamin Stahlbaum! Father, this is—"

"Captain Phillip Hoffman of the Nutcracker Regiment," Benjamin finished as he clasped his hands in front awkwardly. He nodded. "We've met."

"You hadn't mentioned that the king lives still!" Captain Hoffman dropped to his knees. "King Benjamin, Your Majesty, I'm devastated to hear about Marie."

"Rise," Benjamin said, faintly aware of the looks the soldier was earning from the other party-goers. "It really isn't necessary, here."

"Oh, of course," Captain Hoffman said, glancing to Clara in a silent cry for help. "I am just honored to see you again, after all of these years."

"You knew my father, then?" Clara asked, looking from Captain Hoffman to her father, and then back again.

"He was the first Nutcracker!" Phillip said. "All of the rest of us look up to him! He served our queen so well, he became her consort!"

Clara's pale green eyes shifted inquisitively toward her father. A million questions were unspoken, and yet written all over her face.

Benjamin sighed heavily. "I see I have a lot of explaining to do. Captain Hoffman, would you please find Christian? He has his part of the story to tell."

"Yes, sir," Captain Hoffman said.

"And Clara, please find Louise and Fritz," Benjamin said. "They deserve to hear this, too. And I have a feeling you have your own story to share."

"Yes, Father," Clara sad.

Captain Hoffman and Clara both disappeared into the crowd of party-goers, leaving Benjamin alone for the moment. That was when he realized that the music in the egg was still playing. Benjamin scooped it up, not wanting his wife's last gift to be forgotten, only to realize that he'd sent Clara off.

He turned off the music, and stared at the egg a moment. It was one of Marie's favorite possessions, made by Drosselmeyer himself. Marie would modify it later, after his first dance with her all of those years ago.

He remembered the dance, in the Land of the Flowers. He remembered the orchard, where they danced for the first time to the very melody.

Benjamin realized, with a start, that he'd forgotten it during the months after Marie's death. How could he have? In his long life, there were so many others he'd wanted to forget more.

It took all of Benjamin's strength not to cry. Marie had been the one tying him to this world. Now he was to remain in it with his children. This was their world, and he wasn't going to ask them to leave for the Four Realms for his sake, and he wouldn't make them orphans.

He remembered the teary whispers in the night as Marie got sicker and sicker, how she was afraid of leaving them like her parents left her.

He assured her that he would keep going on. Somehow, he would.

As he spotted Captain Hoffman and Clara returning with the people they needed, he remembered when he first met Marie, all of those years ago.


	2. The Nutcracker

Exactly a year had passed since Marie Stahlbaum came to live with Judge Drosselmeyer and his family. Vibrant, with those green eyes shining as brightly as the candles on the tree, she spun about the room, adjusting the decorations and marveling in them.

Christian Elias, his eldest son, followed her, hands stuffed in his pockets. For the party, he wore the only nice clothes that he hadn't ruined with grease from his dissection of clocks and other machinery.

"Oh, I love Christmas," Marie said, clasping her hands together. She whirled around, sending the skirt of her scarlet gown flying. "Don't you?"

"I like the parties well enough," Christian said with a shrug. "I didn't realize you'd like it so much."

"Well, Mother and Father liked it," she said. "They made devices every year— these wonderful clockwork contraptions, like little villages of real moving little people, that worked on their own! Everyone thought they were rather clever!"

"Everyone?" Christian gently prompted. "How many people worked at your household?"

The light in Marie's eyes died, and she stiffened. "I don't know."

Christian wasn't so sure she was telling the truth. He shifted to his right, hating that he had screwed up once again. Over the past year, despite Judge and Madam Drosselmeyer's warnings against it, he had tried to pry the details of Marie's past out of her. But she refused to give even the slightest hint.

He remembered his first impression of her. It snowed the worst Christian could remember when she arrived, so she was shivering, wet, and covered in furs when Judge Drosselmeyer returned early from a trip to mysterious family friends. She spoke with a posh accent and stood like an aristocrat, but there was something strange about her all the same. She was certainly no Stuart, but she was definitely from nobler stock than the Drosselmeyers— that was certain.

The Stahlbaums were also supposed to be family friends, but Christian had never met them.

"Such subjects aren't meant for younger ears," Madam Drosselmeyer said, one of her prim shudders following.

Christian couldn't help his curiosity. Marie Stahlbaum was an alluring mystery set loose and alive in front of him. And he was determined to discover her secrets someday.

"Marie, Christian!"

Judge Drosselmeyer's voice carried through a room, full of power and timbre that Christian could only hope to aspire to. Judge Drosselmeyer's very voice commanded power. He towered over all, with an intimidating and fierce expression, and mysterious scars striping all over his body, hinting at adventures that he deflected and dismissed with charismatic ease.

Matched with petite, prim, and proper Madam Drosselmeyer, the judge and his wife made quite the pair, in Christian's opinion.

All the same, he and Marie made their ways to the couple, and Christian was relived to see that he was not, in fact, in trouble.

In Madam Drosselmeyer's hands were two different gifts.

"It's a tradition in our family to give one special gift the night before Christmas," Madam Drosselmeyer explained. She handed the gift wrapped in green and gold to Christian. "Merry Christmas, my darling boy."

"Thank you, Maman," Christian said, accepting the gift.

"Well, go on, open it," Marie said. "No need to wait for me."

Christian smiled shyly as he opened his gift, and in it was a mechanical owl.

"I know that owl." Marie's voice was as dark as the night sky. "It was my parents' last commission."

Christian picked it up, and wound up the back. The owl's deep emerald eyes sparked to life, and it began to flap its wings and fly through the room.

"Thank you," Christian said, after the owl perched upon his shoulder. "He's a marvel."

Madam Drosselmeyer smiled, and turned to Clara. "This is from your parents."

Marie snatched it from Drosselmeyer's hands, without a second word. She ripped the paper, and pulled out a nutcracker.

"The wind-up key is missing," Christian observed.

Marie tugged on the golden chain of the necklace she kept mysteriously beneath the bodice of her dress. Then she looked self-consciously to Christian. "I know where it is."

She then looked back to Madam Drosselmeyer and the Judge. "Thank you."

Marie then walked off, before Christian could say another word.


End file.
